


We Need to Break Up

by NewEyes



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-17 16:51:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5878309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewEyes/pseuds/NewEyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Don't come any closer Barry, I'm warning you." </p><p>Barry just smiled and took a step forward. For the first time in a long time Len actually felt frightened, it wasn't the threat of violence, he got those all the time, but...it was Barry. It was easy to forget how dangerous the Flash was when normally he was just sweet, nerdy scientist Barry Allen.</p><p>or</p><p>Barry gets hit with a gas that makes him uncontrollably angry (and Len is an idiot).</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Need to Break Up

**Author's Note:**

> For the anonymous prompter on Tumblr who wanted an enraged and out of control Barry.

3

Len ducked as the bottle flew towards him. It smashed on the wall behind him and he dived for his cold gun on the coffee table. Luckily Barry had started ranting again, distracted. He grabbed the gun and whirled around, levelling it at Barry.

"Don't come any closer Barry, I'm warning you."

Barry just smiled and took a step forward. For the first time in a long time Len actually felt frightened. It wasn't the threat of violence, he got those all the time, but...it was Barry. It was easy to forget how dangerous the Flash was, when normally he was just sweet nerdy scientist Barry Allen.

It was also in that moment Len realised he'd been fooling himself for the last three months. 'It's just sex', 'we're not really close', 'we're not like that'. The thing between them was new, uncertain, undefined. They were still technically enemies. It hadn't been perfect but no matter what Len'd done, no matter how pissed Barry'd got, he'd never been cruel. He'd never been like this.

The last time Len'd had trouble firing a gun at someone was twenty years ago but now his finger was frozen on the trigger.

"If you fire that thing at me you better be aiming to kill me. If you don't I'll just get free. I'll come and find you and make you pay for playing tricks on me. Laughing behind my back for months? What kind of punishment do you think that deserves?" Barry was shaking with anger and the expression on his face was fierce. He took a step forward and Len felt another jolt of fear go through him. It was easy to under estimate Barry, his muscle all lean like a runner instead of bulky like a fighter. But right now he was advancing predatorily and all Len really wanted to do was take a step back, though he knew it would be a bad idea. Instead he fired at Barry's feet and then ran, out of the safe house, away from Barry. He heard cursing behind him as he started up his bike, that would buy him some time, he was just lucky that Barry hadn't been in the suit.

Where to go? Something was obviously wrong, it must have been a fight with a meta. Len ignored the tiny part of him that wondered if nothing'd happened, and Barry was just really pissed at him. He'd deserve that. But no, he knew Barry, and this wasn't Barry. Star Labs it was then.

Thoughts whirled round and round his head as he drove. He was breathing fast, adrenaline still pumping through his system. There weren't many things that could hurt the Flash physically and Len had never really given it much thought, Barry healed so fast. He could be beaten up from a fight in the morning and healed by the evening. Given his own age and Barry's super healing Len'd always assumed that he would be the first to die. It just seemed a lot more likely. But seeing Barry out of control like this hit home for the first time that there _were_ things out there that could hurt Barry, kill him even. He could lose Barry.

He stared ahead, gripping the handlebars tightly. Barry was superhuman but he _was_ still human, he could die, and Len would never get to see him grin or laugh again. The thought was like a lead weight in his gut, he tried to imagine what life would be like without Barry but his mind shied away from it.

He thought about breakfast that morning. Yeah, he'd made a _big_ mistake.

 

6

"Len."

"Whaaa-," Len startled awake almost falling out of his chair. When he looked up he saw Barry awake and looking at him. He glanced at the clock. 3:30 in the morning.

"Feeling better?" he asked, and Barry nodded.

"Yeah. I mean, I'm not crazy anymore."

"Good to hear."

Barry coughed into the awkward silence. "I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about kid, you weren't yourself."

Suddenly Barry's gaze was fierce again.

"I'm still sorry. I was awful." His eyes shone with tears.

Len just inclined his head. It was true after all, he'd thrown a bottle at Len's head, called him all sorts of names and threatened to kill him. The silence stretched out as Len thought about it and then suddenly Barry was full on sobbing.

"I'm sorry," he managed to get out. "I understand if you want nothing to do with me now. I mean, you were trying to break up before all of this mess, let alone after I was so unpleasant."

Len just got up out of his chair and walked over to the bed. He waved his hand for Barry to move over, and the younger man shuffled to the side, making room for him. He lay down next to Barry and wrapped his arms around him, it was easy to forget how young Barry was sometimes. He made vague soothing noises as Barry sobbed on his chest. It gave him time to think about what he was going to say, and he waited until Barry had calmed down before he spoke.

"So, you clearly have some issues. But in case you hadn't noticed, so do I."

Barry snorted. "Yeah," he said softly.

"When I broke up with you.... it was because I was lying to myself. Scared of you because you were really starting to matter and that sort of thing is dangerous for me. I get protective fast. For the past few months I was constantly telling myself how much I didn't care about you."

Barry frowned at him.

"But this morning, I realised that it really wasn't true at all, I was starting to really like you and I needed to break it off before we got too far along." Len laughed at himself. "But it was already too late. This whole thing, you going of the deep end, just made me realise something I was trying to hide from myself. I'm already in too deep with you Barry Allen, breaking up with you won't get me out of it."

"If you don't want to, after I broke us up, I understand, but... do you think we could start again?" Len asked.

Barry shot him a watery smile. "I think I'd like that."

 

4

As it turned out Len was the first to notice that Barry had been whammied. Obviously the effect had gotten stronger as time passed but he still couldn't believe that the team at Star Labs and the Wests hadn't figured out something was up.

"Look man, he was short with us but it's not like he's never been that way before. Dude's a superhero, stakes are high some times. It must have gotten worse as time progressed. You're sure he really was off, not just pissed at you?"

Len just gave him a look and Cisco backed away hands up.

"Okay, okay, you're sure. Just for the record though, I do not know how to feel about the fact that you two were secretly doing the enemies with benefits thing. I mean, I understand why Barry wanted to keep it secret, yeah, but man, what a secret."

Joe stood in the corner frowning at Len. He did not look pleased, and Len kept quiet about the fact that they'd officially just broken up, he doubted it would go well for him. He clutched the canister tightly in his hand, cold gun in the other.

"Do you really think the plan will work, you're sure this will stop him?"

"Hopefully it should," Cisco said moving around the lab setting everything up.

"I'm not usually bait, not my style."

"Well, if you were telling the truth, Barry is looking for you. He'll try your other safe houses and Rogues first and when those fail, I bet he'll come here. He'll think you're there to fight him by yourself, we trap him, fill the room with the gas, it neutralises the stuff already in his system," Caitlin said. "It shouldn't affect you. not permanently at least. You'll have the canister as a backup in case something goes wrong but you shouldn't need it."

"Great." Len shook his head. "Though I've learned that when scientists say 'there may be side effects' what they really mean is 'there will definitely be side effects'.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. We'll be next a few doors down watching on the monitors, don't want to spook him." Joe, Cisco and Caitlin headed for the door.

"Good luck, man," Cisco said, and then Len was left there alone.

 

2

He waited until they were both fully dressed before he said anything, he wasn't cruel enough to do it while Barry was still lying naked in his bed. He started making breakfast; pancakes and bacon. Barry ate a lot and letting him start his day hungry was a bad idea. He wandered into the kitchen fifteen minutes later, fully dressed for work but hair still wet, and smiled when he saw the plate for him set on the table.

"Thanks," he said with a grin and sat down in front of Len. He then started shovelling pancakes into his mouth at an extraordinary speed. Len took a deep breath and decided just to spit out.

"I think we should stop seeing each other," he said. Barry froze, his mouth full of pancakes. It would almost have been comical apart from the expression on Barry's face.

"Why?" Barry managed to get out around his food.

"I think it's just time to move on, we agreed to keep this casual," Len said, trying to keep his reasons vague.

"Oh," Barry said looking down at his food, pushing it around with the fork. "Is there someone else for you then?"

Len said nothing, let Barry think what he wanted to. "We can keep working together kid, but best to keep it professional from now on."

"Right," Barry pushed his plate away suddenly and stood up, stepping away from Len. "Well, I'll just...go then." There was a small waver in his voice that he was obviously trying to hide.

"See you around Barry." There was a whoosh of air and a flash of lightening and then Barry was gone.

Len just sat there at there at the kitchen table for a few minutes. It really was for the best. He took the plates and put them in the sink, trying to ignore the tears he'd glimpsed before Barry had flashed away. But despite everything that scene kept going round and round in his mind. Suddenly he was angry. What right did Barry have to be that upset? They'd agreed. Casual, fun, no strings. Suddenly a plate slipped from his hand and smashed on the floor and he almost yelled in frustration. Fuck everything. He sighed, best to leave the plates for now. Before he knew what he was doing he was dialling Mick's number. He really needed to get into a fight.

 

5

What Cisco had neglected to mention was exactly how the gas would work. For some reason Len had assumed it would work immediately, either that or knock Barry out straight away while it got to work. Neither of those things happened. It started to take effect straight away, but didn't lead to Barry going back to normal right then and there either. Instead all of the fight seemed drain out of him, he just looked very sad and slumped to the floor. Len could feel the gas taking effect himself, he felt very drowsy and the floor looked comforting so he decided to join Barry, slumped against the main console. Damn, he felt tired. The world around him was spinning slightly.

"You don't really like me, do you?" Barry asked him, picking at one of his shoe laces.

Len leaned his head back against the console and closed his eyes. "Of course I do," he murmured. "Why would you think that?"

"I've always been a bit strange. A dead mother, an obsession with weird cases, skinny, too smart. Never really had many friends."

"Of course I like you." Len opened his eyes and looked over at Barry, who was almost asleep.

"You like the Flash. He's interesting, but underneath when you get to know me I'm still just weird Barry."

Len sighed and shuffled closer, putting his arm around the man. "I like both. The Flash, and 'weird Barry'. But they're not as different as you might think."

Barry put leaned his head on Len's shoulder. The only reply he got was a sigh, and when he looked down, Barry's eyes were closed. Len felt a small smile creep onto his face and he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

 

1

They hadn't drawn the blinds properly last night so a shaft of sunlight was shining on the bed, right onto Len's face. He shuffled around a bit to get it out of his eyes and then looked over at Barry. He was still asleep, naked, covered only by a thin scrap of blanket. Len hated mornings. Always had, but this one...this one wasn't so bad.

He watched as Barry stirred and started to wake, turning towards Len. His eyes flickered open and when they met Len's his mouth curved up slowly into a sweet smile, Len couldn't help the answering smile that spread unbidden across his own face. Beautiful. They lay like that for what seemed like hours, though it could only have been minutes. Then suddenly Barry was up, talking at speed about the day ahead and Len just nodded back. Barry went for a shower and Len flopped back on the bed, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

They needed to break up.

 


End file.
